You have said: “It is useless to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the Lord of Hosts? So now we consider the arrogant to be fortunate. Not only do those who commit wickedness prosper, they even test God and escape.”
At that time those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. The Lord took notice and listened. So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared Yahweh and had high regard for His name, “They will be Mine,” says the Lord of Hosts, “a special possession on the day I am preparing. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him. So you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. Malachi 3:14-18 HCSB
As you read this, I don’t know if you are one of the wicked people or one of the righteous people. Perhaps at this point, you don’t even know where you fit in, but let me tell you this. The two are very different or at least they should be. I can promise you that God sees them very differently.
We live in a country where equal rights are a big deal. We want everyone to have the same rights no matter their race, religion, sex, or ethnic background. We want people to all have the same rights and the same opportunities. In some cases, that may be a good thing, but there is one thing we must consider.
On judgement day everyone won’t be the same. You see there will be those of us who suffered on earth striving to be righteous and we will be lifted up into heaven. We will live in a place where there is no more suffering and shame. Best of all, we will live in the wondrous presence of our Lord and Savior forever and ever. But those who have not served the Lord here on earth will be thrown into the lake of fire. In Revelation 20:12, the book of life is mentioned. In our scripture passage today it says that the names of those that serve the Lord are written in a book. In Revelation 20:14 it said that anyone not written in the book was thrown into the lake of fire.
God didn’t make each and everyone of us the same. We are all different. We are shaped by the lives that we are born into. We all have free will to do as we please. We can choose to change our lives. We can choose to serve God. But we truly live in a world of winners and losers. Oh I’m not talking about the rich and the poor. I am talking about those headed to heaven (winners) and those headed to hell (losers). You see we may live in a world where no one wants us to keep score. We may live in a world where we want everyone to get a trophy even if they don’t play well. But,w e are headed to the throne of judgement. There we will not all be treated the same. We won’t be given a trophy just because we showed up there, you see going there is not optional. We will be judged and we will either go to heaven or we will be thrown into hell.
We have a choice on how we live now, but be very careful my friend. Because how you live now, determines where you will spend eternity. You can hang with the sinners and follow them into hell or you can gather with those that serve the Lord and spend eternity in heaven with them and your heavenly Father.
I understand that you want to fit in and be cool, I’ve been there, done that and got the t-shirt. Even as an adult when I worked in law enforcement I wanted to be the cool person that hung out at the bars on the weekends with my friends and co-workers. I get it. But I have never had more peace and joy in my life than when I chose to follow Christ 24/7, 365 days of the year. Once I made this decision, God made it easy for me to fit in with fellow Christians. He removed some friends from my life, but others he changed as he did me and they began serving the Lord. My close friends and I grew closer in our shared love for the Lord. It was truly awesome, but the most awesome thing about it is this. Ten years ago if you had asked me if I was going to heaven, I would have said, “I think so or I hope so”. But now I can look you in the eye and say, “I know so”. I pray that you can do the same. You see, none of us know when we will be called to stand before God at the throne of judgement. But right now we have a choice. We can choose to accept Christ as our savior, believe in Him, confess our sins and repent, or we can choose to continue to lead a life of sin. As long as we are here on planet earth, we have many choices to make. But once we are called before the throne of judgement, we can only live with the choices we have made. Our eternal fate will be determined by those choices we made while here on earth. I beg of you to be sure that if you were called home this very minute, that you know that you would go to spend eternity with your heavenly Father.
If you are not sure, give it all to Jesus. If you have questions about how to do this, turn to a pastor or a trusted friend or contact me through this website. I want you to be 100% sure!
Have a great day!